I knew someone who bought a Suburban and the battery kept draining. It turned out that the owner’s manual was pushing on the light ‘switch’ in the glove box and that was draining the battery. They either moved the owner’s manual and the problem stopped happening.
I was told with newer trucks, there is always something running in the background. All the little things add up and cause drain on your battery. We always plug our trucks in for at least an hour if its below -10C as it does help with start up (though it will do nothing for the battery, it just is easier for the truck to turn things over).
My husband has 2 trucks and drives his dually from time to time, and it can be left for a week or two between start ups. He has found it dead on occasion, with nothing left on. But he has all the bells and whistles, and they are constantly running, even when the truck isnt on. He has installed a trickle charger under the hood and uses through the winter months (for when he drives the truck less).
It works great and he never has any issues anymore with start ups. He can leave it for weeks now and it starts on the first try.
BUSY - That’s the first thing we checked both times after boosting. But there was nothing left on as far as interior lights, phone chargers, etc.
fanfayre - Yes we do have a block heater on the pickup and yes it has been rather cold here in North Dakota lately … but the pickup is kept in a HEATED GARAGE. So cold isn’t a factor in this case.
Thanks gumtree. We will have to look into that if they don’t find an issue. Again, it’s just nuts to me to think that if I don’t haul my horses somewhere every single weekend, that the truck will die.
Hokiekat - I get what you are saying about needing to drive on a long trip for the battery to be fully charged. The last time the pickup was used was when my husband went scouting and hunting. He drove for HOURS looking for fields for geese, as he always does when scouting. So in this case, the battery had to have been fully charged (unless, of course, bad battery).
But in general, we live 10 miles from town. So if it gets drove into town, it gets at least that much along with the miles to the destination.
Did your mechanic check the battery to make sure it was ok?
I second checking the alternator
I had this problem a few winters ago with my 2002 F350. Turns out the alternator wasn’t working at full capacity and so while it would charge the battery if I got the engine under load (up a hill, highway speed, etc) it wasn’t charging the battery when I did the easy short drive back and forth to the arena. Was diagnosed with a volt meter by my husband.
If it’s in a heated garage, yeah, there is something wrong with the truck! I’d still start with testing the battery itself in case it’s dying. Easiest fix.
Sorry guys, been waiting to post the UPDATE until I could talk to the service manger on-duty myself.
Of course, they found nothing wrong. And told us that is “just the way it is” with a newer vehicle.
I wanted to make sure they truly checked everything they could check, since I know that some dealerships will skimp when they know it’s warranty work and they aren’t getting paid. To their credit, it was in the shop for several hours. But I just wanted to make sure they checked every little thing, before assuming its “just the way it is”.
Hubby dropped it off and picked it up. He got over there early before it was ready so he sat and waited … and talked to the general manager… who told him that the newer pickups DON’T DIE if you don’t drive them. So there’s some conflicting information from the GM himself.
We also called an independent body shop who’s done work for hubby before who is going to look into the issue because he agrees with us that 2 weeks sounds too quick. He wanted to do some research before we brought it in, but we are going to bring it in for a second opinion, even though it’s going to cost us. That’s okay; I just want the problem found (if there is one).
For the record, the service manager I just talked to at the dealership (who was present Friday when our truck was in) was VERY rude to me on the phone just now. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a woman, but he pretty much answered everything with “the GM battery tester checked that like I told your husband”. Or maybe he was annoyed I was actually asking detailed specific questions. I don’t know. I didn’t care for the guy or how he handled himself. Claims they checked everything extra I asked (many of your suggestions) but the only printout or slip that hubby got is a little strip from the GM battery report. He even insinuated that the truck may die within DAYS of not being driven and that that’s considered normal.
The test strip says:
Diagnostic Mode
Test Info
CCA 770
Out of Vehicle
Flooded
Results
Good Battery
Rated: 770 CCA
Measured: 772 CCA
Measured volts: 12.61
Charge Time: 00:00:00
Amp Hours: 0.0
State of Health (SOH)
…it’s a bar-type graph with appears to be 11 possible positions from low to high. The LINE is located in the 3rd space from Low, on the low end.
I’d attach a picture of it if I could but stupid PhotoBucket isn’t working right now.
We have had as assortment of Yukon/Suburban/Sierra over the past decade. Every single one has needed the battery replaced every other year
contact the General Motors Zone manager directly, the dealership is a ship of fools
Ted Pfister
Zone Manager, North Central Region
Phone: 407-319-4621
Email: ted.pfister@gm.com
North Central Region
North Central - IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, ND, OH, SD, WI
if this truck is used commercially contact
Adam Stayberg
District Manager - Commercial
Phone: 817-471-6367
Email: adam.stayberg@gm.com
Central Region
Northern MN, ND
if you contact Adam… that 817 number is Fort Worth number, he recently moved to Saint Paul, MN … ask him how he like the weather there
clanter - I think I will call GM tomorrow. This is not the first bad experience with this dealership we have had. If nothing else, I want GM to provide me with documentation that tells me I need to drive my truck every single day … or buy it from me so I can go buy a different brand. 
I will gladly go back to an old plain jane pickup. All I need is something strong enough to pull my trailer; I don’t need a DVD player … or navigation system … blah blah blah.
This probably isn’t your issue, but I just went through three batteries with my Ford Escape, it was dying almost every day. I was sure it was something draining it, but finally got so fed up with the dealership (they are rude as H*LL to me, the ‘dumb little blonde girl’) that I went to AutoZone and got a DuraLast battery. Been months and NO problem. So, it CAN be the dealer stock of batteries is just crap. I would put a good battery from elsewhere on just to see, if it were me.
I don’t have anything to add re: what it could be. But for the interim period what about getting a battery tender so the battery stays charged? I know it’s not going to fix the underlying issue but hey for 45 bucks it beats a new battery all the time.
I have an electric jack on my horse trailer and it was dead (well it’d try to work and then shut off as soon as it had to start truly working with weight). I figured I needed a new deep cycle on it ($150-200) and decided to try a battery tender before outright replacing it upon the recommendation from several folks here. Sure enough it works. It’s a bandaid approach for sure. For the record, I have a '12 F350 diesel and don’t run it but once or twice every few weeks and it’s never been dead. If I had to replace both batteries on that with much regularity or frequency I’d be getting rid of it.
Well update … or lack thereof. The gal at GM customer service that I spoke to was supposed to call me back today. I guess she’s got a couple more business hours left to go yet, but when I spoke to her on Wednesday, she said she is going to try to get me a detailed list of exactly what the dealership checked. They have 24 hours to respond to her, or she calls them. She said she would update me within 48 hours regardless.
So … hang tight.
I can’t reply with quote but I have a 2500 Suburban that kills batteries. Installed new battery same thing. Disconnected all after market lights still dead battery. It’s been an annoying mystery so I am going to check the glove box @starborne! That would be an easy fix if that was my problem!
Not a truck, but our tractor has an issue with the ignition switch, in that even in the Off position, it’s not truly off, and that will drain the battery, so if that’s never been considered, it’s something else to add to the list.
[QUOTE=clanter;8995548]
contact the General Motors Zone manager directly, the dealership is a ship of fools
Ted Pfister
Zone Manager, North Central Region
Phone: 407-319-4621
Email: ted.pfister@gm.com
North Central Region
North Central - IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, ND, OH, SD, WI
if this truck is used commercially contact
Adam Stayberg
District Manager - Commercial
Phone: 817-471-6367
Email: adam.stayberg@gm.com
Central Region
Northern MN, ND
if you contact Adam… that 817 number is Fort Worth number, he recently moved to Saint Paul, MN … ask him how he like the weather there[/QUOTE]
This worked for me with a BMW 635 CSI I had in the late 80s (when I was on the service side of horses, not owning and breeding) It was the full blown sport model with a manual transmission. It did not shift “smoothly” from 2nd to 3rd. I’m a “gear head” and have had several Beamers and other sports cars. Can tear them down and put them back together.
Took it to the Dealer twice complaining about the tranny. Service manager took test drives with me and said it was fine.
Called BMW North America in NJ to complain. They said their regional service would be in the area and made an appointment.
The BMW regional service manager drove it basically around the block a fraction of time the Dealer service manager drove it. He agreed with me drove into the Dealer garage. Got out and blasted the Dealer Service manger in front of me. Very satisfying. Told him to have a new transmission “over nighted” and installed within 2 days after it arrived.
He made a follow up call to check on things several days later. That’s what customer service is all about. Dealers hate doing warranty work by and large. They only get paid a fraction of their standard “shop rate” by the manufacture
This was happening with our older truck, it ended up being the visor light; the one that lights up the mirror on the visor. When you closed the flap over the visor mirror the light was not going off. Doesn’t seem like enough to drain a battery but it was doing a good job of it over time.
The story continues.
Finally got a call back from the GM Senior Advisor today. She was not able to get any communication back from the dealership until now. I then got a call (directed by her) from the service manager at the dealership. It was a nice breath of fresh air to have a reasonable person to talk to; he was actually very good at answering my questions and also believed that there could still be something wrong with the pickup, and seemed to be completely honest about what their “diagnostic machine” can and can’t do (explained how it can say a battery is “good” but the battery can even still be bad).
I guess I didn’t know this, but there is a Chevy dealership in town who can also do warranty work on our GMC. So we already had a second opinion appointment scheduled with them on Friday the 13th (oooOOOOOoooo). I spoke with hubby and we decided to keep that appointment for now, although the GMC service manager sounded totally on-board to work with us. I told the GMC manager we’ll keep him posted if the Chevy dealership finds anything.
Now, the GMC guy did say (which I already knew) that their diagnostic machine does not individually check each fuse connected to the battery, so of course it does not tell them if one of them has a drain. I’ve read stuff online (and you guys have eluded to as well) that you just manually go through and check it. And of course, is very time consuming. Kinda sounds like the GMC dealership won’t do that, but instead leaves it hooked up to a monitoring device that if something starts to drain the battery, THEN they look closer into it. I did not question him in detail on this but it sounded like the pickup would have to sit there for days for this to work?
Anyway, I’m interested to see what the second (Chevy) dealership comes up with.
And at least happy I found someone with a good attitude to chat with at the GMC dealership who actually seems to know what he is talking about, and willing to go the extra mile.
Stay tuned…
I have not read all the responses, but I’ve had that happen for two reasons. One, the battery was actually not connected tightly enough and two, because the brake controller was creating a parasitic drain. I’ve also had it in my car due to a radio that had gone bad and was draining the battery.
[QUOTE=Cherry;8988302]
Did your mechanic check the battery to make sure it was ok?
I second checking the alternator[/QUOTE]
The battery can be checked with a load tester. Most auto parts stores will do this for free.
Checking the alternator is an easy DIY. Just take off one of the battery cables. If it is not working the car/truck will stop running. Because it is “running-sparking” off of the battery.
Sometimes a bad voltage regulator can be the cause. But this should be easy to determine by the Dealer when hooked up to a diagnostic analyzer.
